solving asymmetry

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After journalists from the SZ-Zeitung published their research on the manner and methods that facebook use to remove content, A swift reaction from the German Minister of Justice urging social media companies to expedite the deletion of content that violates the German constitution and rights was reported today. Even pointing to possible penalties if those companies lag behind their offending content.

Such swiftness, if only but for this encouraging exception today, is not the strongest trait of governments and public institutions. And we would be naive unloading that burden on them.

Social media is a very fluid and agile world, and therefore extremly difficult to tackle and regulate. The social problems that social media is creating need to be solved with methods and resources inherent to social media if they have to be tackled effectively. Yet the sheer amount of content that social media companies garner can not possibly be regulated by those companies. The effort is far too huge. There is an intrinsic and bold asymmetry between the infrastructure and the user base.

A different approach is required. We, all of us, have to join our efforts and help our institutions and governments keep social media within the legal framework of our constitutions and laws if we want it to happen any time in the future.

The blockchain technology could be brought to be the backbone of a global reputation and refutation system. Much alike the scientific community does but using the trust-less character of the blockchain hence without the gateway of having to be an accredited scientist to have your say. Starting by attributing each person a base reputation index based on education level and let it develop further by using a reputation-currency.